System and Method for Data Collection and Management

1. A system for recording and providing healthcare data comprising: a tablet having an interactive graphical user interface including a plurality of interactive forms for use with a healthcare application, wherein one or more forms are configured with rules that enable the tablet via the interactive graphical user interface to guide a user to enter patient data in a directed manner and the tablet validating the patient data during data entry, and storing the patient data for upload to a server, the server configured to store and distribute forms to the tablet, synchronize the patient data uploaded from the tablet, and communicate the patient data to a clinical database; a server-based software utility configured to prepare and send data to at least one of a clinical system, clinical database, national registry, healthcare payor, and governmental agency; and the clinical database in communication with the server, the clinical database configured to host the healthcare application, receive the patient data uploaded from the tablet to the server, and use patient clinical data included in the patient data to make one or more treatment determinations about a patient.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a second software utility operating on a computing device and in communication with the server, the second software utility configured to provide for a healthcare institution to retrieve at least a portion of the patient data at the server or the clinical database and format the retrieved portion per one or more specifications.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one form includes one or more navigation tools, the navigation tools including any of tabs, arrows, graphic-linked hotspots, and field-linked programming functionality, the navigation tools allowing the user to jump to a portion of the form on the tablet.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein for at least a portion of one or more forms, specific fields, pages or forms are hidden to reflect that portions of that form need not be completed, and wherein a decision to hide or show the fields or pages is based at least in part on preceding data entry into the form.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a form includes one or more retrieve and populate pick lists, and wherein data used to populate the pick lists is stored and retrieved from tables on the tablet.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a form is visually similar to one or more of an ACC-NCDR ACTION national registry Form, ACC-NCDR Cath/PCI national registry Form for collection of cardiac catheterization data, ACC-NCDR ICD national registry Form for collection of implantable cardioverter defibrillator procedure data, ACC-NCDR CARE national registry Form for collection of carotid artery stent procedure data, STS Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery national registry Form for collection of cardiac surgery data, STS General Thoracic national registry Form for collection of thoracic surgery data, or STS Congenital Cardiac Surgery national registry Form for collection of pediatric or congenital cardiac surgery data, JCAHO Acute Myocardial Infarction Core Measures form, JCAHO Heart Failure Core Measures form, and JCAHO Stroke data form.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein a form is designed to collect a set of data that meets the requirements of one or more of an ACC-NCDR ACTION national registry Form, ACC-NCDR Cath/PCI national registry Form for collection of cardiac catheterization data, ACC-NCDR ICD national registry Form for collection of implantable cardioverter defibrillator procedure data, ACC-NCDR CARE national registry Form for collection of carotid artery stent procedure data, STS Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery national registry Form for collection of cardiac surgery data, STS General Thoracic national registry Form for collection of thoracic surgery data, STS Congenital Cardiac Surgery national registry Form for collection of pediatric or congenital cardiac surgery data, JCAHO Acute Myocardial Infarction Core Measures form, JCAHO Heart Failure Core Measures form, and JCAHO Stroke data form.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein a form is any of a multi-day surgery patient tracking form and a multi-day cardiac rehabilitation patient tracking form.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the server distributes one or more updated copies of one or more forms to the tablet.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the system includes a plurality of computing devices and wherein the server distributes one or more updated copies of one or more forms to the plurality of computing devices.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein a form includes one or more attached picklist files.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein data collected from a first computing device is used to modify the distribution of one or more forms displayed on a second computing device.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the server further validates the patient data.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is configured to communicate information to the clinical database in an HL7 format.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the system comprises a plurality of clinical databases, and wherein the server can choose which clinical databases should receive which patient data.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the clinical database merges the patient data received from the server with existing information for the patient associated with the received patient data.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein an external database receives at least a portion of patient data created by a healthcare institution using a utility designed to select portions of patient data from the server in a format specified by the external database, and once the data is harvested then setting a flag in the server indicating the data has been received.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the tablet is used at a point of care in a health care facility.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein any of the server, clinical database and server-based software utility is located at a remote datacenter.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tablet is used at a health care facility and the server is operated at a remote location and is accessible to the tablet.